New Yorker Union Workers On Verge of Strike
Leaders of The New Yorker Union sent out a survey in July to its members to gauge support for a strike. It was a test of how far the workers would go to procure a contract agreement that satisfied their demands and was fair. Previously, it took almost three years for their first-ever contract to…
High-speed rail advocates strategize how to scale up in the U.S.
While high-speed rail had a big moment this past year when President Joe Biden announced that he was doling out more than $8 billion for rail projects in December, train advocates still have their work cut out to create a new era of high-speed trains. High-speed rail infrastructure in the U.S. is behind what exists…
Legal Service Workers Continue Strike
Employees at the nonprofit legal services organization Mobilization for Justice have been on strike for 11 weeks. They have gone so far as to ask the City Council to cut off funding to the organization. They have been picketing outside their Manhattan headquarters for nearly three months. The workers, attorneys, paralegals, accountants and support staff…
Leah Rambo, President of NEW: An Extraordinary Leader
New York, NY – Nontraditional Employment for Women (NEW) has a unique mission: the nonprofit organization prepares, trains, and places women in careers in the skilled construction, utility, and maintenance trades. In doing so, it lifts up those who might not otherwise have had a shot at a middle-class life for themselves and their families.…
Louis J. Coletti, President Emeritus, Building Trades Employees Association: A Man of True Experience and Dedication
New York, NY — Louis J. Coletti, President Emeritus, Building Trades Employees Association (BTEA) has proven himself time and time again to be a leader extraordinaire. His titles throughout his career are too numerous to list, but one position he held was particularly important. From 1997-2023 he was President & Chief Executive Officer of the…
WellRithms: “Fairness and Justice in Healthcare Billing”
A patient in California recently spent two days in the hospital for a femur fracture. For the stay of two days in a standard medical-surgical bed, and the operating room used during surgery, the hospital charged $343,636. Reasonable pricing, however, including a profit for the hospitals, was only 13% of that-$43,830. Medical overbilling like this…
NEW enlists unions to increase opportunities to graduates at equity luncheon
Nontraditional Employment for Women’s (NEW) annual Equity Leadership Awards Luncheon on May 1 marked the beginning of a new chapter for the gender-equity based pre-apprentice program under the leadership of its new president, Leah Rambo. In February, NEW announced that Rambo would be taking the helm of the training program designed to increase the number…
A Hit and a Miss by The New York Times
An in-depth article by the New York Times this week sheds light on the seamy world of medical overbilling. The magnitude of this problem is staggering. Kudos to The Times for shining a light on it. They pointed to incentives by a bill review and repricing company that minimize payments to providers, sticking patients with…
Report Finds Hospitals are Padding Bills, Saddling Patients
The Wall Street Journal reported this week that hospitals are adding billions of dollars in facility fees to patient bills, even when patients don’t set foot in a hospital. “Once an annoyance, the fees are now pervasive, and in some places they are becoming nearly impossible to avoid,” The Journal reports. Your union’s health plan…
The union gave her a shot at electrical work; NEW taught her to be an advocate
You often hear that workers find themselves in the construction trades because of a love of making things or working with one’s hands. For Racquel Hazlewood, it was her love of mathematics that ultimately led her to electrical work. “I always had a love for math. Like that I think was like the thing that…